My First 9 Months in Recruitment

I have been with Finlay James now for over 9 months and ‘my gosh’ I have learnt so much in that time!

I am new to recruitment and at the age of 29 I decided it was time that I needed to find a job that I could love and not one that just paid the bills and wasn’t challenging me. I knew that recruitment wasn’t going to be an easy industry, it was going to be a challenge, but I would learn so much and hopefully become really successful!

Finlay James started an academy in July 2016 and I was one of the first to be given the opportunity to join this company within their academy.

Within the first week I was ‘buzzing’ there as so much to learn and everyone wanted to help, and my colleagues were really welcoming. As I had no experience, it was back to the very basics of recruitment! What are recruiters? Sales people! I was on-boarded to Finlay James, I have also become a black belt ninja with Social Talent. I learnt what Boolean is, how it works, how to use it, how to search for a role using it and including the CRM system that I needed to learn too. I was given loads of handbooks with information in it for me to learn, including what my targets would be for the year and what the training and progression plan was for the first 6 months and onwards.

In September, just two months after I started, I placed my first candidate! It was exhilarating, I’ve done it!! To be able to prove that you can do something amazing; changing someone’s life and finding their dream job!

I have found that over the last 9 months in recruitment, that it’s hard work! What you put in is what you will get out of it!

I work for a fantastic company where the CEO is based in the open plan office, he is involved in all processes of the business, including interview briefings to all candidates. I have seen this company care about its staff and help in any way possible. The incentives for doing your job well are amazing and the team are great to work with.

The first week at the beginning of April will show all of you reading this how exciting a week in recruitment can be! I had 3 new starters, 4 first stage interviews, 2 second stage interviews, 2 rejections, 1 offer that has been accepted, and another offer that had been put back on the table from a client to one of my candidates. Trust me, there’s never a dull moment!

To date, I have hit my KPIs and my targets and am currently achieving 116% however, in April 2017 alone was 347% of my monthly target.

If you are hardworking, love customer service, can deal with highs and lows and want to be part of a great team and business that is constantly expanding, you can contact either myself, or Richard Gibbard, Director of Talent Acquisition and Training; who runs the Academy.